Google's new video chat

[torpid]

Google just added video chat to google talk. You can install it by going to the link off their blog site.

My GF used the new google video chat feature last night to chat with her sister. The install was pretty painless. The chat was not exactly super quality video but it was decent and the audio quality was decent. No echoes. It seems like a well executed, if painfully simple video chat. Obviously people using existing third party solutions are probably going to find it lacking. There's no three way calling feature, no real obvious way to set the quality, and overall it's very vanilla.

On the other hand, my GF and her sister were able to use it and required zero help from me to get it working.

Anyone else played with it? I've got minimal experience with other software, only enough to know lacking features. I'd be curious to impressions from a QoS standpoint.

 

[dartworth]

have they tried skype?

 

[Anubis]

can you record it?

 

[OCGuy]

pedobear rejoices.

 

[TridenT]

What is the quality? Does it do HD video?

 

[effowe]

I was just talking about trying this out, I think I will when I get home.

 

[funkymatt]

thought about doing it last night, then i realized i dont have a webcam.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: TridenTBoy3555
What is the quality? Does it do HD video?

Quality isn't great or anything. By default it fits into a little window in your chat area. You can go full screen but it just zooms and doesn't increase the resolution.

 

[CraKaJaX]

My GF just told me about it. She has a webcam in her laptop and tried it with me about 10 minutes ago -- (We're both away at school.) Even though I don't have a cam, it worked fine. It was pretty clear actually, I was surprised. I've never used skype, so I can't compare it.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: dartworth
have they tried skype?

No. That was kind of what I was trying to get at... there are tons of video chatting options they had before, but they never tried them nor expressed a desire to. Now they are really excited about video chat in google and are going to try to get their mother to use it and any friends who have webcams (mostly mac users I guess).